Kevin Garnett: 'This is for 'Sota!'

MINNEAPOLIS—The moment was one of unbridled passion, the rawest of emotions that only the achievement of a lifelong dream can produce.

Cloaked in the most storied shade of green, Kevin Garnett was celebrating with his teammates, trying to come to grips with a reality that at one time seemed so unrealistic, so improbable. He was an NBA champion.

"Anything is possible!" Garnett said after trying to find the words. "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!"

He said it with a visceral scream that cast off the weight of 13 years of expectations; 13 years of questions about his performance in crunch time; 13 years of giving maximum effort night-in and night-out in a quest to fill the final hole on a Hall of Fame resume.

The first 12 years of that sojourn, of course, were spent here in Minnesota. And for those bleary-eyed Timberwolves fans who stayed up late to watch the only franchise player the organization has ever had complete that quest wearing Celtic Green instead of Timberwolves Blue, Garnett made it all worthwhile.

"This is for everybody in 'Sota!"

It was the first coherent—and printable—quote he offered during the postgame hysteria. An homage to the place he called home for 12 years, the place where he grew from a skinny high school kid into a mature MVP.

If there was any question about Garnett losing affinity for flyover country—especially in the wake of owner Glen Taylor's "tanked it" remarks earlier this season—they were answered very quickly following Boston's demolition of the Lakers in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday night.

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"This is for everybody in 'Sota!"

True enough, Garnett followed that by saying it was also for Chicago, where he played his prep basketball at Farragut Academy, for his mother and for a number of other people, places or things that were simply indecipherable as he muttered them out in a tear-drenched diatribe that perfectly captured the gravity of the situation.

But Minnesota was first. It was the first thought in his head as he collected himself to express the pure joy and relief that was clearly overwhelming him, and that certainly counts for something.

For all the trials and tribulations he went through here—the seven straight one-and-dones, Stephon Marbury's ugly exit, starting on a front line with Mark Blount and Ricky Davis—he also holds a tremendous sense of loyalty to a state he never wanted to leave in the first place. Still the only place he can really call home as a professional.

Garnett knows that. He knows that despite the championship in Boston and his magnificent 26-point, 14-rebound performance in Game 6 that should forever end the questions about his ability to come through in the clutch, the Celtics are Paul Pierce's team and Boston is Pierce's town.

Celtic fans have embraced KG wholeheartedly and Garnett's No. 5 Boston jersey is the top seller in the league. But with a tour-de-force performance through the entire playoffs, Pierce cemented himself among the great Celtics of all time while KG is still trying to find his way around town less than a year after arriving on the scene.

The Twin Cities are still home for Garnett. That much was clear in February when the Celtics came to Target Center that was sold out and thunderous despite Garnett not even suiting up for the game. He received a thunderous ovation when he was introduced before the game, but declined repeated requests for comments to let the fans know how he felt about them.

He left the arena that night without saying a word to the local media, leaving many to wonder if he was forever scarred by the trade from the Timberwolves to the Celtics.

We didn't know what he thought about Minnesota anymore. We didn't know if he still thought about Minnesota the way Minnesota still thinks about him.

Now we know.

Before he talked about joining Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, John Havlicek and Larry Bird as players to lead the great Celtics to a title; before he spoke about getting the 800-pound gorilla off his back and becoming a champion for the first time; before he even mentioned the woman who gave birth to him and raised him from the hard-scrabble neighborhoods in Mauldin, S.C., up through Chi-town to the tony south metro area of Minneapolis, Garnett paid tribute to the fans and the state that helped make him the player he is today.